Inigo could hear nothing from Hasir's and Kassamae's room, he'd guessed they went straight to sleep. No matter how hard he tried,
he couldn't sleep, he had been thinking of the snowy khajiit that he knew years previously who had, he felt, got ripped away from him
far too soon.
When he his mind finally had settled down, he let sleep overtake him. Despite what Inigo may have wished, it was far from the
restful sleep he want. His brain flashed back to that horrible day in the halls of torment where Ma'akara had died. He could see those
familar halls rush past him as he ran down the halls, only to see her possessed by Bloodfang again. Inigo maneuvered through the
halls trying to get to her but an invisble barrier was holding him in place, preventing him getting to her. Furious he beat he fists
against the barrier calling her name as the black wolf, or more precisely, Adrian, soared through her nostrils and latched onto her
brain like some kind of foul vapor.
The blue khajiit could only watch in horror as the khajiit he loved was slowly enveloped by darkness, leaving nothing of the khajiit he
loved behind. He could hear Ma'kara's screams as agonizing pain raked through her body, causing her to fall to the ground, jerking
around wildly as if she were having a seizure or being tortured. Inigo pounded against the invisble wall, trying desperately to reach
Ma'kara, hoping that if he could just get to her that he could help lessen the pain somewhat, but all he could do was watch helplessly
as her life was slowly taken from her.
Inigo looked on with dread and sadness as Ma'kara ceased thrashing about; lying still as a toppled statue. Black plumes of smoke
rose from her corpse as if it were spewed from one of Pweyite's children and reformed in midair, as a being of pure darkness, quite
unlike the wolf he had seen moments before, but still retaining those horrible, unfeeling red eyes. It flew at Inigo, dispeling the
barrier, forcing Ingo to scuttle along the bluish-grey stone floor like some kind of humanoid spider.
Inigo slammed his eyes shut as the shadow enveloped him. Inigo awoke as beads of sweat danced on his forehead. He was not
aware the scream actually did come from his mouth and was not heard in the dream, as he initially thought. He got up, dressed and
went upstairs and sat on one of the benches, trying his best to get back to sleep. No matter how hard he tried, however, the dream
still kept returning.
The next morning came and Inigo could here movement from the lower level and got up to find Kassamae and Hasiir ascending the
stairs, yawning and rubbing the sleep from their eyes. They even had on the armor they wore the night previously. They smiled at
Inigo and greeted him. Kassame walked over to a cooking pot sitting above a tiny pile of wood on the right side of the manor. She lit
it with a well placed flame spell, took out ingredients from her bag: fish, carrots, venison and leeks, and tossed them into the pot.
Once the meal was done, she reached up on a shelf sitting near the fire and grabbed three wooden bowls and poured a healthy
portion into each. She handed Hasir his, took hers and brought Inigo his.
They sat together on the bench that Inigo was already sitting on, ate their meal hungrily and talked about their itinerary for the day,
"So, where to first?" Inigo asked after he swallowed a spoonful of soup
Hasir turned to him, mouthful of soup and shrugged. Kassamae opened her mouth and told them that she thought they would roam
the town, seeing what it had to offer as well as stocking up on supplies they would need to brave this barren ashen wasteland. She
took another bite of soup and swallowed,
"Mext, I thought we'd go to Tel Mithryn, the local Telvanni Tower on the island, and see what the big idea is promoting a Lukiul and
denying her slavery while being perfectly happy to enslave a marshborn Argonian."
Hasir glanced up from his soup and gave his mother a quizzical expression,
"Erm... what is a Lukiul?" He asked, causing Kassamae to choke on the scalding soup
Hasir glanced over to Inigo, who gave him the same confused look,
"Ermmm... a, er, lukiul is an Argonian who is born under Imperial rule," Hasir eyed her blankly, "Erm... someone who cannot hear
the whispers of the hist." She said, trying to fill Hasir's vacant sea with juicy fish.
Hasir shook his head for several minutes to try to make sense of this, but could not. Kassamae sighed and muttered something
inaudible that Hasir nor Inigo could not hear and finished off their bowls of soup and exited the hut, walking toward the city to begin
to mingle with the inhabitants and exploring what the city had to offer as per Kassamae's instructions. Kassamae came out a
few minutes later, glanced left to right to determine where the khajiit and Argonian had gone.
She stared to go back inside when she caught a whiff of something on the wind... something big. This was solidified when a huge
shadow passed over the dirt path sprinkled with stones here and there. She looked from the shadow, to the green dragon that was
halfway to the dock Kassamae ran full pelt toward the city to warn Inigo and Hasir about the reptilian menace heading their way.
She hurried along the dirt path up to the city and saw the walking past the Raven Rock Mine. Kassamae had to skid to a halt to avoid
bumping into Hasir, who had stop in front of the wooden door set in a recess of stone that lead to the mine. Inigo tried tugging Hasir
arm, saying they could going ming later, but Hasir stayed immovable.
Inigo saw Kassamae standing directly behind Hasir, turned and gestured from her to the stunned Argonian hoping for her help,
"What going on? What's wrong with Hasir?" she asked, nonplused
Inigo cast a worried glance at Kassamae, obviously as clueless as he was,
"I dunno... I think he is remembering a troubled time," Inigo said, not knowing what to do
Kassamae approached her entranced son; her tail wrapping around his ankles in a comforting gesture and an attempt to break him
out of whatever spell he was under. After several minutes, Hasir picked up Kassamae's scent, blinking his eyes rapidly as if coming
out of some ill-gotten reverie,
"Kassamae, when did you get here?" He said, shocked, "sorry about my thousand yard stare, I was..." His voice tailed away, not
wanting to divulge the horrible truth.
Kassame and Inigo begged Hasir to open a window to his past; Hasir begrudgingly accepted,
"This mine... it just reminds me of a mine that I was enslaved in when I was a small hatchling." Inigo patted his friend's shoulder
with a friendly hand, "My friend, one must not linger too long on the past, it isn't healthy, we must look forward not back." He took a
deep breath, "A you said before 'a person must not live in Shunatei, but instead focus on Ku-vastei'."
Hasir apologized, saying that he didn't want Inigo to suffer the same fate because the dunmer typically frown on outsiders. Inigo
shrugged this away, smiled and pulled Hasir away from the mine toward the city. Inigo and Hasir gasped in horror as they both
caught the scent of a dragon flying toward the city.
Both Inigo and Hasir ran after the blue dragon and only when they got up close and it had landed on a building that was a part of the
bulwark, the wall surrounding the city, did they see that this dragon was not like any dragon they had seen on Tamriel, well, that
Hasir had seen anyway. This dragon had a big, pirahna-like head, fat gargoylre-like body and a long thin tail. It also had spines
running the length of its entire body. The dragon gave an almighty roar that shook the dirt and cobblestone strewn ground.
Inigo decided at the moment to run, which was a stupid move on his part because the dragon had seen him a swooped down on him
like a hawk would a mouse. Just then, a portal opened in front of the docks, stepping out of which was a humanoid being wearing
brown robes with gold symbols and matching shoulder pauldrons. Hasir saw that he wore a dragonpriest mask upon his head that
looked like a golden squid's face.
The figure was flanked by being who wore black robes, jutting out of which were long, purple tentacles; Hasir had to fight the urge
to vomit as he saw the grotesque tentac;es that obscure the already disgust face. The figures glided noislessly alongside the man as
he strode toward Hasir.
The figures stopped as the man stared Hasir dead in his reptilian blue eyes,
"So, the last surviving dragonborn has come home at long last."
Hasir scratched his head in confusion,
"I'm sorry ... the last what?"
The man, who introduced herself as Miraak, told the nonplused Argonian about the longstanding history of the dragonborn. He
laughed, shaking his head,
"You, I've been told, are the last of that proud line of dragonslaver, unless I am mistaken. I have come here to remind you of your
true status. Your true birthright is to stand alongside dragons and dragonpriests as gods, not destroy them as they were an
unwelcome menace. I will await you in the lair of the witches in Skyrim," He said sighing. Seeing Hasir's confused expression, Miraak
chuckled, "I'm sure you've heard of it?"
Hasir nodded his head and said he had heard of it, but asked Miraak why this was important. Miraak laughed and said that he would
find out soon enough as the witches worshipped the dragonpriests; Hasir looked concernedly at him and expected the dragonpriest
to say he was kidding but Miraak conjured a bluish-purple portal and disappeared.
Hasir helped the fallen khajiit up and glared at the spot where Miraak vanished. The argonian thrust a hand out to stop the furious
khajiit from lunging at the spot where the dragonpriest was previously, eyes momentarily flashing red. Kassamae caught up to them
a moment later, panting and looked from Hasir to Inigo wondering what was going on.
Hasir was about to tell his mother about why Miraak was there when a sound like an egg cracking came from where he had seen the
serpentine dragon moments before. Hasir gasped as the dragon glowed bright orange as if fire was enveloping it. The dragon shell
broke away, revealing a tiger-striped dragon with matching striped pointed tail, leathery wings which were also similarly striped.
Hasir gasped again as he saw curved black horns on his white-maned head as well as yellow pupils with slitted eyes beneath bushy
eyebrows and a wispy white moustache set on his scaly snout.
The dragon spoke to the sky again, in a language Hasir did not understand, a strange combination of Thu'um and some words Hasir
did know, because of his time in Akavir under Quinchal's tutelage. The dragon shifted his position on the wooden wall and saw the
green Argonian and the khajiit, whose fur stood on end.
The dragon laughed heartily at Hasir's bewilderment; shaking his maned head as if trying to rid himself of a bothersome fly,
"Where are my manners? I burst of a dragon yet I do not tell you my name? How rude of me." He said, " My name, he said, is Tosh
Raka."
